The present invention relates generally to improvements in conveyor systems, and more particularly to method and apparatus for high density loading of products on an endless collapsible conveyor belt.
Conventional helical or so-called "spiral" cooking, cooling and freezing processors typically include an endless collapsible conveyor belt of self-adjusting, intermeshing links which enable the belt to curve or "collapse" laterally from the path of a straight infeed section into a helical processing section within a chamber. Products can be loaded directly onto the infeed section or indirectly by a separate straight infeed belt traveling at the same linear speed as the infeed section of the collapsible belt. If the feed rate is manageable for manual loading, persons on either side of the infeed section or infeed belt, instinctively place the products at substantially equally spaced lengthwise intervals on the traveling belt. For machine or automatic loading and similar dispensing devices, the products are deposited across the infeed section or infeed belt in equally spaced rows like soldiers in marching formation. However, the lengthwise spacing between the articles decreases as the belt collapses into the helical section within the chamber regardless of how the products are arranged. The space loss is greatest near the inside edge of the collapsed belt and is usually compensated by loading all of the articles on the straight infeed section farther apart. Consequently, the load capacity of the belt is not fully utilized because products nearer to the outer edge have been spaced apart more than necessary.
Helical processors having a separate straight infeed belt feeding the products onto the infeed section of the collapsible belt are especially useful in processing delicate products which might deform if they were loaded on a straight section of belt that collapses into a helix during the process. But contrary to all appearances, there is no enhancement of load capacity of the belt because the tangential velocity in paths of products nearer to the outer edge of the helical belt is greater than the linear velocity of the infeed belt, i.e. there is excess space between products deposited in paths nearer to the outer edge.